- Health Reasons for Switching to a Vegetarian Diet
- You are What You Eat
- What Did Our Ancestors Eat?
- Why Did Humans Start Eating Meat?
After being a vegetarian for a while, you start questioning society and you start thinking about the future and the past. At least, that’s what I have been doing.
Among the things I have been thinking about and questioning, is what our ancestors ate and how far we have changed our eating habits.
Let me tell you what I have discovered.
Originally, our ancestors were hunter-gatherers and not omnivores. They did not eat animals (omnivore is a person that eats food of both plant and animal origin). When you look at predators and carnivorous animals you can see that they have teeth designed to rip and tear. Their teeth are not designed for chewing. Animals that are designed for chewing like herbivores (an animal that feeds on plants) have flat teeth that are designed to breakdown food.
Humans have evolved
Humans evolved from being vegetarian. ”Our” digestive systems were not designed for eating and digesting meat. Eating meat is a fairly recent development in human history. It’s believed that people began to eat meat because they couldn’t find the natural foods they were used to eating.
Initially, we were similar to creatures that evolved from animals like herbivore apes. These apes looked similar to us and walked upright with their arms and hands. They naturally search widely for food and ate roots, berries, fruits and nuts. They also lived moment to moment constantly searching for food.
Hunting requires thought and eating meat required fire. Until fire was discovered, humans primarily ate vegetables and fruits.
Tags: carnivore, Food, herbivore, omnivore, vegetarian
I believe that there should be a key nutritient food to force our ancestors to pass from eating fruit from trees to eating protein based nutrients such as meat. No mammals can evolve such a rapid change from being vegetarians then all of a sudden being hunters and eat meat. Especially without knowing how to use fire and cook…I came to a conclusion that maybe our ancestors were really eating all the greens and fruits up on the trees but maybe by the coming ice age and rapid decrease of the vegetation, they found the way to feed on that secret nutritiant hidden upon the trees. That key food for them is now called : EGGS…Especially with the falling temperatures, the birds suddenly migrated and even left their eggs on the trees. All the leaves and fruits have died and birds have left…suddenly the heaven turned into hell. But the eggs on the trees were staying there fresh under snow as if they stay now in our fridges. So the human made the choice. Or maybe they just thoughr it is a kind of fruit. Well there was not much choice left anyway. So they quickly discovered the way to crack the skin of egg in their mouth as snakes do, and swallow the protein rich nutrients. And they survived the beginning of ice age this way. But this rapid change in diet probably caused a great deal of changes in our genes too. Maybe that was what made us different from todays apes. Made our brains grow, made our skin less hairy and made us close to predators. But at least we survived…And considering that the ice age didnt only last for a couple of years, and most the eggs are gone, our ancestors found other ways to find protein rich food. Which is meat. Then they first started to eat what is left from real predators, they they started to hunt themselves too. Using tools of course. So I believe the story goes from fruit to egg, and egg to meat.
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